Power connectors presently available typically consist of two parts, a male portion and a female portion, both of which are necessary to make an electrical connection. These connectors are quite expensive when multiple mating connectors must be dedicated, such as in a power system where a connection is desired in only one or two slots at a time. In order to be able to plug a card into any slot requires a dedicated mating connector in every slot on the backplane printed circuit board or a wire to wire type connector. Previously, power connectors have been available with a 6 to 8 amp contact rating which is not sufficient for some modular power system requirements. If more than 8 amps of current might pass through a contact, multiple contacts connected in parallel must be used which can prove to be unreliable if one of the contacts fails, forcing the remaining contact to carry more than 100% of its current rating.
Because of the foregoing, it has become desirable to develop a connection scheme that requires only one connector per module to interconnect the module with the backplane printed circuit board, and wherein some of the contacts can carry relatively high currents while the remaining contacts carry lower currents.